1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrolytic bath for manufacturing acidic water and use of the acidic water, and more particularly, to an electrolytic bath for manufacturing acidic water capable of obtaining a high concentration of acidic reduced water or acidic oxidized water, especially, by applying the same polarity to a plurality of electrodes having one polarity and applying the same polarity to a plurality of electrodes having the other polarity through a mesh electrode without using an ion exchange resin, so that a reduction-oxidation (redox) reaction is facilitated by expanding an electrode surface that is a reaction area of the electrodes having different polarities and narrowing a distance between the electrodes, thereby electrolyzing reverse osmosis (RO) water or deionized (DI) water as well as tap water, and use of the acidic water.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A patent document (Korean Patent No. 10-0660609) disclosing an electrolytic bath for producing alkaline reduced water has been filed and registered. Such an electrolytic bath for producing alkaline reduced water is configured so that cathode electrodes coming in contact with an electrolyte are formed so that the cathode electrodes have a larger area than anode electrodes coming in contact with the electrolyte, the anode electrodes are anchored in an anode chamber with an open top surface, the cathode electrodes are anchored in a cathode chamber to be continuously disposed at a lateral surface of the anode chamber, outlets formed in the anode chamber are communicatively formed with inlets of the cathode chamber adjacent to the outlet, and an n−1th outlet of the continuously disposed outlets of the cathode chamber is in communication with an nth inlet of the cathode chamber adjacent to the n−1th outlet. According to such an invention, a change in liquidity may be achieved without addition of chemicals.
The alkaline reduced water produced thus is useful for washing off fine particles present on a surface of a semiconductor wafer or a photomask and has an effect of solving problems regarding damage of patterns and preventing oxidation of a surface of the semiconductor wafer or the photomask since only DI water or RO water is used as the raw material water. In particular, the alkaline reduced water has an effect of reducing environmental issues since drained water can be recycled at a low cost.
However, the electrolytic bath disclosed in the patent document has the following problems.
(1) Since a power source was independently applied to a plurality of electrodes having the same polarity, a potential difference for surfaces of these electrodes was not uniformly formed, which made it difficult to stabilize the surfaces of the electrodes.
(2) Since a conventional electrolytic bath used RO water or DI water as the raw material water, an ion exchange resin had to be used to enhance conductivity due to low conductance of the raw material water.
(3) When such an ion exchange resin was repeatedly used in the electrolytic bath, the heat resistance of the resin was degraded, and its lifespan was limited.
(4) In general, electrolysis was a decomposition reaction occurring on an electrode surface between a negative pole and a positive pole. Therefore, the conventional electrolytic bath had a problem in that electrolysis efficiency at a region that was not in direct contact with the electrode surface was deteriorated.
(5) Since the power source was independently supplied to the electrodes installed adjacent to each other to have the same polarity, it was difficult to stably expand the surfaces of the electrodes.